232 The Path of the Jut, Ss R M. very good and extremely bad. Thus Solomon XII. here fpeaks concerning the path of the juft and the wicked ; the former, he Pays in the text, is as the fhining light ; and in the verfe immediately following, the way of the wicked is as darknefs. My intention in this difcourfe is to con- fider the beauty, dignity, and excellence of religious virtue in human characters and acfions, not only in general, but in the dif- ferences of its Rate, and the various Reps of its progrefs, from its weak imperfect be- ginnings to its confummation. It is like the fining light that f ineth more and more to the peife l day. It is not neceffary to defcribe the path of the juft; it is nothing elfe but the practice of virtue, of moral piety, of righ- teoufnefs, of temperance, and charity, which I fuppofe fo far univerfally known, as to make the encomium Solomon gives it, that it is as the fhining light, eafily intelligible. Only let it be obferved, that the whole of virtue is comprehended, and every effentiál branch of it muff be reduced to practice in the path of the juft. Philofophy itfelf deter- mines, and it is plain to every one who at- tentively confiders it, that the virtues are in- feparable ; at leaft, that no character can be eminent
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